I looked to the top of the mast to check my wind direction gauge to guide us into the wind as we set anchor. There, hovering above the mast was the eye of Zeus. Zeus is Poseidon’s brother and the god of the sky, as well as the god of gods. I have felt particularly close to Poseidon these last four sailing months. This visit from Zeus was an unexpected privilege. Even the gods find the mesmerizing blues and greens of the Bahamian seas something to behold and gaze at.

But for those of you poo pooers who don’t buy into my delusions so readily, this rainbow around the sun phenomena is called a sundog halo. It is produced by ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds three to six miles up in the troposphere. In ancient mariner times it was used as a weather prediction for an upcoming front.

The following particular front was a doozy. This video is of us at anchor in Rock Sound. The good part about storm fronts is that we open our water ports on deck and fill our tanks with fresh rain water. Our tanks in this storm filled quicker than you can say, batten down the hatches!

We are just leaving Eleuthera. We have visited some old favorite anchorages and settlements and have found some new favorites.

Governor’s Harbor is an old favorite that has a street party and fish fry every Friday night. We try our best to plan around it whenever we are nearby.

One of the highlights of this years’ fish fry is that we found out the group of young men, two in white t-shirts that you see in the limbo contest video, grew up with my oldest son and live in our hometown, Stillwater, Minnesota. I didn’t even know we had videoed them. Three of the guys went to our sons’ grade school and have been to our house. I know their moms. I didn’t recognize them as it has been years since I’ve seen them but serendipity put us next to each other at a restaurant the following day where we figured it out. One of the guys in particular stuck out in my memory from the night before as he was thoroughly enjoying his evening. Admittedly, I learned in the past that the rum bubbas they serve are stronger than they taste. I wisely forwent the bubbas this year.

Our new favorite place we discovered is Ten Bay.

It is a quiet little crescent moon beach anchorage with good protection and beautiful water.

Here, we had the honor of snorkeling with spotted eagle rays. The fish on top of the one ray is a Remora. Remoras are also known as suckerfish as they attach themselves to larger fish, whales and occasionally divers and boats, to hitchhike a free ride. I don’t know what the fish below the ray is.

Ray and Ramona Eagle Ray had about a four foot wingspan. Eagle Rays can grow up to sixteen feet.

We loved Ten Bay so much that Captain Nowdisisduhtingmun doubled back to it on the way back north.

Why didn’t I mention Soul Divers being with us you ask? Because we had to go our separate ways. Matt, Sadie and their second mate Toby ventured to the Exumas and Captain Cryinhisbeertobereturning and I turned north to start our way back.

Have I told you about Toby?

Toby is a character. Toby yells. He will greet you as you board his ship with a MEOW!!! MEOW!!! In fact, his name is not Toby, it is TOBEEEEEEY!!! One tends to yell back at him. He and I have a thing. Or at least I have a thing for him. He has me wrapped around his paw. He will sit as close to his treat bag as possible and stare at me until I cave. He will paw at it and shoot me a shitty cat look if I take to long. MEOW!

We yell, TOBEEEEEYYYY!!!! as we dinghy back to our boat and he will come to the port and yell, MEOWW!!! He has pushy pawed two screens right out of the port windows and into the sea to never be seen again.

There are things that I’m good at and there are things that I am not. Goodbyes are not my strong suit. We shared a meal which started with twin appetisers. We both caught cero mackerels on our way to the anchorage.

We feasted on the twins that we named Mary Kate and Ashley. We ate them sashimi style.

Then we had steak and Sadie’s Mashed Potadies. My eyes leaked as we said goodbye. But Matt and Sadie cheered me up the following morning. As we pulled away from the anchorage they mooned us.

So, it is back to just the captain and I upon our long voyage home. We have enjoyed the trip back north through Eleuthera. And, we’ve noticed we tend to feel better in the mornings after nights when it is only the two of us. It is not as festive though and I already miss our friends terribly. Buddy boating has many benefits. It is always good to bounce navigation and weather observations off of each other. It is nice to have a friend to talk to. Plus it is plain fun.

Captain Conservativeandthorough and I do all kinds of things to preserve fresh water. I use a pitcher of salt water to flush my fresh water plumbed head. And, we do our initial dishes wash off the transom of the boat before a soapy then fresh water rinse. You never know what is going to come up to taste your scraps. The following picture is of a near cousin to the sea horse. This is Piper the pipefish. There were two and they were about four inches long. The top of the picture is her snout and the bottom her tail.

We are currently anchored off of Royal Island, near the northern tip of Eleuthera. Tomorrow we will sail the crossing back to the Abacos. It is about a fifty-five mile sail. I hope to see whales. I hope to have calm seas. But you never know what the weather and sea will bring.